back to browsing

Goodfellas [Blu-ray Boxset] [20th Anniversary Edition]

2 discs
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

Theatrical release: September 12, 1990. Shot on location in Queens and Manhattan, New York; and Fort Lee, New Jersey. GOODFELLAS was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2000. GOODFELLAS was in competition at the Venice Film Festival, where director Martin Scorsese won the Silver Lion. It was shown at the American Museum of the Moving Image during a Scorsese/De Niro film festival. It was voted best film by the New York Film Critics Circle, who also voted Scorsese Best Director. Robert De Niro was voted Best Actor by the same organization for his work in this film, and in AWAKENINGS. It won the Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci), Best Supporting Actress (Lorraine Bracco), and Best Cinematography (Michael Ballhaus) awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Joe Pesci also won a Best Supporting Actor of 1990 award from the National Board of Review. Actress Debi Mazar, former makeup artist for Madonna, plays a small role here. She went on to become the wisecracking receptionist on the short-lived TV series CIVIL WARS and appeared in the the cast of L.A. LAW in the 1993-94 season before branching out into a series of film roles, including GIRL 6, TREES LOUNGE, and THE INSIDER. Chuck Low, who played Morris Kesssler, was actually Robert De Niro's real estate broker, who rented him the penthouse in what later became the TriBeCa Film Center. Scorsese has been known to use his parents in his films, as he does here, and he actually made a documentary about their lives, ITALIANAMERICAN. His mother, Catherine Scorsese, also had a bit part in THE GODFATHER PART II. Look for a young Michael Imperioli as Spider, who gets shot in the foot by Joe Pesci's crazy character. Imperioli went on to star in THE SOPRANOS, and in one episode his crazy character also shoots a helpless guy in the foot, mimicking the scene from GOODFELLAS.
Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor 1990 Joe Pesci American actor, GOODFELLAS (1990)
Read More...
Credits

Robert De Niro, Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, Paul Sorvino, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Frank Sivero, Mike Starr, Frank Vincent, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Corrigan, Henny Youngman, Henry Youngman, Tony Darrow, Chuck Low, Charles Low, Frank Di Leo, Christopher Serrone, Jerry Vale, Sheila Howard
Critic Reviews

"...Packed with solid-gold dialogue, tight performances and way too many classic scenes to list here..." -- 5 out of 5 Stars
Total Film
"...GOODFELLAS makes poetic drama of warped ambitions. It's a prodigious achievement..."
Rolling Stone
"...Awesome GOODFELLAS is a punk movie, both in subject matter and attitude..." -- 4 out of 4 stars
USA Today
"...Breathless and brilliant....GOODFELLAS is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances..."
New York Times
"...Filmed like a rainbow-hued thunderbolt and celebrating Mob lore in the fastest 2 1/2 hours in film history..."
Film Comment
"...GOODFELLAS is RAGING BULL squared....[The film] flows with the exuberance of a filmmaker who has every detail nailed and a few new lovely moves he wants to show us..."
Los Angeles Times
"Martin Scorsese regained the explosive force of his '70s heyday with this true-life mafia memoir."
Premiere
"GOODFELLAS is Martin Scorsese's violent and intense view...of organized criminal life, with powerful performances by De Niro, Oscar-winner Pesci, Bracco, and Sorvino.."
Widescreen Review